ROBINSON was forced to apologise and retract a statement made in the wake of Hearts' defeat to St Mirren, but Stevenson can empathise with his team-mate.

Robinson was in trouble after being subbed in the game against St Mirren (Photo: Rob Casey/SNS Group)

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HEARTS midfielder Ryan Stevenson admits he is in no position to criticise team-mate Scott Robinson after he was forced to apologise to boss Gary Locke - because he has done enough "stupid things" himself.

Midfielder Robinson had to say sorry to his Tynecastle manager after claiming he was being "picked on" by Locke when he was substituted at half-time in the 2-0 defeat to St Mirren a fortnight ago.

The frustrated 21-year-old - who was also replaced at the break against Dundee United a week earlier - retracted his statement and claimed it was made in the heat of the moment.

Locke has already drawn a line under the incident and has included Robinson in his squad for Saturday's Scottish Premiership trip to Motherwell.

But Stevenson - fined £1,500 and banned from driving for 20 months earlier this year after being caught three times over the legal drink driving limit - also gave the player his backing as he admitted it was easy to stray off the straight and narrow.

The former Scotland squad member said: "Everyone in the heat of the moment says stuff they they probably don't realise the full effects of and that's what Scott did.

"A couple of days after he has realised he was probably out of line. At the end of the day, I've done a lot of stupid things in my life so I know exactly how easy it is to do these things.

"He's a passionate boy and he will learn from it. We look at Scott as one of the older boys in the team but he's still only 21. I'm sure he will move on from it. All the boys have and there is no ill-feelings.

"No one likes getting brought off at half-time. Ask any player, it's not a nice feeling.

"But the one thing you can be sure with Scott is that he will give 110 per cent."

Stevenson made his return from injury against the Buddies after a knee injury sustained in August's Edinburgh derby win against Hibernian ruled him out for six weeks.

The Jambos grabbed a morale-boosting win that day to lift spirits following their 15-point penalty for going into administration but Stevenson admitted he was left feeling as low as he ever as while his team-mates celebrated.

"It was a frustrating spell," said the former St Johnstone and Ayr man.

"I've never really had a serious injury so I had to deal with that, and then with the season being like it is, it is one where you don't want to get injured - we can't afford to lose anyone right now.

"For it to happen in the second game of the season in such a big game was especially disappointing. As soon as it happened I knew it was bad. I tried to come back on a couple of times but it just wasn't right.

"We ended up winning the game which was great but while the rest of the boys were buzzing, I was sitting at the back of the changing room on crutches while wearing a knee brace, not knowing how long I'd be out for.

"I'm murder as a patient. Even when I was in the knee brace I was wanting to push things further and the doctor and physio had to put up with me going in every morning trying to move things along.